Happy when it rains...
[Morning of Thursday, June 18]The rain's taken a turn for the steady; I can hear it drumming down, bouncing off roof and window. Waking up is a slow and drifting thing, curled up under the blankets with Iago's breath warm on the back of my neck, and I can't think of a damn reason worth moving or even opening my eyes
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"I believe you're disc-cussing a d-drink I've not tried yet. I've no idea how I'd t-take to it, nor my tolerance." She's looking away from me. How shocked is she? More to the point, how opposed to the notion is she?
Gently tilting her face in my direction, I softly say, "Luv, I'd never force you to do anything you didn't want to do. You do believe that, yes?" I softly stroke her cheek as I continue. "I only ask as you seemed to enjoy a bit of roughness, as I do, sweet girl. I don't have a whip hidden under the bed, waiting for the right moment. That's much too far, in my opinion, luv. Plus, I doubt even my hide could withstand that kind of punishment." I chuckle and grin in amusement.
"I only ask so you have the option of deciding where you want to go and what you want to do." Sliding my hand across her midriff again, I stroke in small circles, grinning as I gaze into her wide eyes. "I'd tell you what I believe naughty girls deserve but it's a secret, luv, so you'll have to wait until after you tell me where you want that second kiss as Tez was indeed one of the card players that night."
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"I only ask so you have the option of deciding where you want to go and what you want to do."
"I don't know. I--truly, stormcrow, I'd not th-thought of any of it that way. It's--it's never come up." Iago's not my first, but no-one else ever went further than holding an arm hard enough to bruise, and none of them ever did anything but accept my scratching or ask me to stop, and that was where it lay. And of the stunning multitude of my trysts since I left Swansight and took to the road, none of them lifted me up and left me singing the way he does, left me feeling like I was sixteen and summer-drunk again, and I've been too wrapped up in his touch to think of it as anything more than that.
Curiousity, and the assured belief that he won't harm me, and the memory of his teeth and nails in the last hour... it's a powerful combination, leading to interesting thoughts. Not ones I'd ever considered, but...
"I th-think..." His stroking is lapping away at my tension, slow small circles on my stomach, and I leave off holding his wrist and run my hand absently down my own thigh. "I think you've something of the r-right of it, I do. I just-- I don't know, I truly don't." Swallowing my own words and repeating myself and I sound a fool, I know it. I smile shakily up at him. The choice he's offering me is a curiousity and a temptation, but I don't even have the words to begin to ask.
He did ask if you'd let him decide, Glass... I feel the heat and the blush rise again, my eyes locked to his, and I swear his gaze is burning right through me.
"I'd tell you what I believe naughty girls deserve but it's a secret, luv, so you'll have to wait until after you tell me where you want that second kiss as Tez was indeed one of the card players that night."
But not, I'm guessing, the one who told Verdi's secret, or he'd likely have mentioned that... Safer ground for the moment, and I sigh in relief, most of my mind still spinning with what he's said. "My nipple, cariad; it'd be a change from the pinching." Quick smile, a little shaken, and my tongue runs over my lower lip. First time I've noticed myself doing that, for all he's spoken of it. "Though I swear I'm running near-dry on ideas for who else could've been there..."
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There's less shock and more curiosity from my sweet girl now that she's had a chance to quietly consider the possibilities accessible to her. Outstanding. I could give her so much more, more than she imagined. All she has to do is keep an open mind and I'll vow to fulfill her every desire, depraved or otherwise. Truly, I'd jump at the chance, without hesitation.
"I believe that as well, luv, and as I'm full of suggestions, we'll explore any desire that strikes your fancy. What we share between us is for us only, and you needn't feel shame or shyness. I am yours without reservation, to do with as you will and I'll not share our secret passions with any others. I vow that to you, my sweet luv." Sealing my promise with a kiss, I dip my tongue softly into her mouth, savoring her taste as I sweep my hand across her hip.
"My nipple, cariad; it'd be a change from the pinching. Though I swear I'm running near-dry on ideas for who else could've been there..."
Lowering my head to her breast, I cup her in my hand gently as I lave the whole nipple. As I take my time over her, I suckle softly, tongue and suction at first and then finally teeth, giving her a small taste of what she could have if she only asked it of me.
Smirking, I gaze into her unfocused eyes and say, "Last guess, luv. If you can't give me a correct answer, then offer me your forfeit instead and remember, sweet girl, my preferred forfeits tend to run in a more sensual vein."
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There's a moment when I wonder, under his kiss, if its too sweet a promise to believe. And then the rest of me--reserved and somewhat dry sense--suggests that perhaps it's in keeping for Iago to offer to cater to me in this, and that he's not like to see whatever play we undertake as any great hardship. I'm smiling at that as he turns to my prize for guessing Tez's name.
He's gentle at first, and I reach up to stroke the back of his neck as his tongue plays over me, and then the quick delicate pinch of his teeth comes and my hands clench on his shoulders, trembling.
If I needed any reminder that in Iago's bed, asking and enticing are interchangeable, his smirk'd be enough. "Last guess, luv. If you can't give me a correct answer, then offer me your forfeit instead and remember, sweet girl, my preferred forfeits tend to run in a more sensual vein."
It's not that I think I'd object to near about anything right now, but he's dangling a mystery in front of me, something he's sure enough I care about to make a prize and a game out of, and there'll always be my curiosity. I take a steadying breath and try to think.
New to town. Not Tez, not Constantine. Probably not a woman, if he was playing at the Whitechapel, so not the madgirl or Verdandi herself or Mab. Mab's deputy is new, but I wouldn't count him as one I know. Cary, maybe I know--there's a certain familiarity from coming upon a mangled corpse together--but from what little I saw I can't really take him for one to be talking about Verdandi's love life if he knew about it--
--but of course, who'd know about it to carry tales?
Oh mother's bones.
"Was it my nightmare?" I say quietly. It can't be, surely, but I don't know who I'm forgetting...
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"Yes, luv, it was. And since you guessed correctly, you should decide where you want your last kiss. Again, I have a suggestion.." I slide my hand from her midriff to her thigh, lightly tracing the flesh on her inner thigh. "..but the choice is yours, luv."
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"You..." My voice has nothing to it, hollow, dried-out milkweed pods rattling in an autumn wind. And I'm looking right at Iago and my mind's eye's full of the Shuck and the rain, teeth shining dark and scrapes and bruises on wet stone and wondering if I'd ever see dawn again.
"You played cards with him?" Sat and smoked and drank with him in the room, at a table with him, talked to him? "You played cards with him? You--"
I take the stinging on my palm for a memory of my scrabble past crumbling brick, until I see his skin redden and the sound of the slap reaches me.
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Lulled by her sweet softness, she catches me by surprise, all sound and fury, and truly, I should have expected it. Cheek stinging, I take the slap in stride as I narrow my eyes and pull away from her, rolling to a sitting position. Gaueko frightened her. Yes, I'm aware of that but there's no cause for her to strike me, especially in anger.
A deadly calm slides over me, icing my words. "Luv, I have never struck you in anger, or otherwise, for that matter and I'm at a loss to understand how you'll justify this to me. We played cards. We did not conspire to destroy Excolo or plot to rape and pillage next weekend."
Between gritted teeth, I say, "I did not know he would be there. I didn't know until I walked through the door, but rather than letting me elaborate, you choose to strike me instead. Fright or no fright, I'm on your side or have you forgotten so quickly?"
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"Justify? You--d'you think I take you for a conspirator?" I push myself up to sitting, hands shaking. "Or d'you take him for mortal? Do you think he'd lay any more weight to killing you than he would to crushing a catskull in an alley, or take any more effort?" The murdered dead I've lain out are swimming behind my eyes, and every corpse has Iago's features where there's flesh enough to shape them, Iago's hands under the gouge and scrape of their last failed defense.
He could be on the other side of the stars right now, the air between us so still and cold. Like lying down in the night and finding yourself in the arms of a corpse.
"And you walk in there and treat him like he's nothing more than you or Valmont, like he's a man? And t-take me for t-treating it as l-l-lightly when you t-tell me you took it upon yours-s-self to be p-playing cards w-w-- w-w-with--with a breath-and-bone Shuck?" Losing my words and losing my breath and seeing him beaten shapeless, strung up and gutted and branded, hung and strangled, anything and everything that leaves Gaueko drooling and makes him laugh.
I will not weep. I will not...
"Fright or no fright, I'm on your side or have you forgotten so quickly?"
And all the good that'll do me if I need to lay you out and eat your sins... "Forgotten? Are you not minding what he is? What were you th-thinking?"
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"Luv, my sweet girl, don't be angry with your stormcrow. I didn't see the harm in it but I had no notion that it would incense you so." I kiss her knuckles again, hoping she won't pull away from me to keep her emotional distance. "I'll avoid him, luv, like the plague, if you wish it so but don't turn away from me."
How can I explain to her how terribly she's distressed me without sounding like a love-struck fool? "My affections, newly-won, are fragile and easily shattered by your words of anger, just as your strike was a knife to my chest. Have a care with me, luv, as I'm unaccustomed to wounds of the heart and you wield a weapon I have no defense against." I do sound love-struck, and twice a fool as I won't regret it. Dorian is going to laugh at me should this reach his ears.
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"I'm not--" His second kiss interrupts me, and I catch myself before I lie. "I'm in a fury, I'm t-terrified." The two should not come so close. I remember my mam screaming at me, once, when I told her of playing with the Shuck. I was only pretending, a child. And that was just a game, while my stormcrow sat across a table from it. "I w-wish you knew. I'd not have you see what I see when I look at him for the world, but I wish you knew."
"I'll avoid him, luv, like the plague, if you wish it so but don't turn away from me."
I slide my shaking right hand across our entwined fingers and grasp his wrist. I can feel his pulse under one finger, warm and alive. Turn away? I can't even think of letting go right now, want to hold him here in warm grey daylight with the rainshadows running forever down and across him, keep him safe from the night.
Might as well wish to weave a dress of raindrops.
"You can't avoid him, cariad. That's not how it stands. At best you run when it comes dusk and hide yourself in a lighted room all night, and skirt mischance and murder in the dark. And at the end of all your days he still comes. You just... fare better if you don't forget what it is. What he is." I pull myself towards him, not letting go of his hand, end up kneeling in front of him and holding his hand before me as if I were praying, breathing in his scent and his heat.
"I d-don't... I know this happens. I know it all ends, and we come to dust. And I can live with it over my shoulder, but it takes me badly sometimes when it stares me in the face." Perhaps Gaueko's like to see him as Verdi's and not like to care, but I didn't think. I only feared. I'd've felt less terror to see him about to down hemlock.
"My affections, newly-won, are fragile and easily shattered by your words of anger, just as your strike was a knife to my chest. Have a care with me, luv, as I'm unaccustomed to wounds of the heart and you wield a weapon I have no defense against."
"Iago, cariad, I'm sorrier than I can say. I should never have raised a hand to you." I loosen the grip of my right hand, slip it up his body until I reach his face, still reddened from my slap. "I was a coward and a fool, and you've never treated me so badly, and you deserved better than that." My voice threatens to crack. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I hurt you. I'd undo it if I could, true as rain."
Please forgive me, and I don't say that, either because he's promised me anything I ask for and I'll not play that card at him or because the thought of him refusing is a knife in my heart.
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She softly strokes my face where she'd struck me earlier, gentle as my sweet girl again. Her voice is filled with contrition, and truly, that's enough for me as I can refuse her nothing, not when she apologizes so sincerely. I might be a fool, but I'm her fool and I doubt that'll shift any time soon. "I know it's true, luv, and you are far from a coward or a fool. You are my sweet Glass, and you feared for my safety. Admittedly, your choice of expression was unexpected, but I understand the sentiment behind it, luv."
Placing my hand over hers as she touches my cheek, I lean forward and caress her face along her cheekbone. Glass is beautiful in her nakedness, both in body and emotion, and if possible, I want her even more than usual. "I forgive you, my sweet luv, knowing that you'll not strike me again.." Sexy grin and cocked eyebrow. "..at least, not in anger." Kissing her mouth firmly, I push my tongue into her mouth, tasting her near-tears as I pull her flush against me with one arm. Sliding my free hand through her hair, I grasp her locks as I bring her gaze to mine.
"I still owe you a kiss for your correct answer. Where should I place it, luv? Tell me quickly before I make my own choice."
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That doesn't excuse it and I open my mouth to give voice to the thought, but Iago's hand is on my face, a gently heated caress along my cheek and just below one eye. He could be wiping away tears before I've even shed them, and I turn my head into his palm, enough to leave a contrite kiss on his wrist.
"I forgive you, my sweet luv, knowing that you'll not strike me again....at least, not in anger." The gentleness of his voice and the wicked come-hither look on his face are such a sweet strangeness together, sunlight and lightning, that I'm startled into a quick laugh. Fear doesn't excuse what I did. Forgiveness is another matter, and when me pulls me to him and kisses me throughly, tasting me, the last of the snarled tension inside me melts.
Iago barely pulls back when his kiss is done, holding me close with his gaze and his hand in my hair. "I still owe you a kiss for your correct answer. Where should I place it, luv? Tell me quickly before I make my own choice."
"My hand--the other one," I say, voice still shaken and mouth close enough to his that I could swallow his breath as I speak. "My hand and then another, cariad, wherever you choose. Please?"
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Not the hand that slapped me but the other. Sliding my hand down her back, I lightly brush my fingers along her backside before I cup her rear gently, testing the resiliency of her flesh with a soft pinch. I clasp her wrist, bringing her hand to my mouth as I press my lips to her palm with soft kisses and wet kitten-laps. Using the tip of my tongue, I gently swipe along the length of her fingers to the tips, kissing each one gently until I reach her littlest finger. I catch the tip in my mouth, suckling softly as she quivers against me.
"My choice, luv? I choose.." I pause, slipping my hand between her legs as I press my finger to her center. "..here. I'm greedy for you, luv, and cannot resist."
Guiding her down to the bed, I push her back and nuzzle her heated center. I slide my hands between her thighs, pressing them open as I lower my mouth to my target. Lightly brushing my tongue over her core, she arches her hips towards me as I lean further forward and swirl deep into her. Mingled with her flavor is a bit of my own, driving me forward, reminding me of how recently she shared pleasure with me. She's glorious and mine alone, a rare treasure, hidden to the world.
Tearing myself reluctantly away, I pet her midriff as I grin at her, whispering, "You taste of ambrosia, luv. Truly, I could subsist on your sweet nectar alone, content to miss the passing of the world as I drink of you."
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He lowers me gently aback to the sheets, spreads me and dips his mouth to my center, and I rise towards him. Both my hands are on him, stroking through his hair, and I swear the grey light in the room is taking on a golden sheen as I close my eyes and lose myself to Iago's kiss. There's no touch of his teeth this time, not even to tease. I could be dreaming, suspended in a moment that's slipped between the flick of the clock and been stolen to timelessness under the stroke of his tongue.
He stops and whispers, and I open my eyes. "You taste of ambrosia, luv. Truly, I could subsist on your sweet nectar alone, content to miss the passing of the world as I drink of you."
"I'd well lie here with you forever, if I could," I murmur, sitting up enough to catch his hand and drawing him up the bed towards me. "Hold you in rainshadow light and draw the world down to no greater than your bed." I run my free hand through his hair, draw close to kiss him and taste myself on his mouth, and his taste as well.
"But if I can't," and I kiss him again, linger a moment, and in his hands and on his mouth the idea of can't melts like ice in summer sun, "let's use our time as best we can, cariad? I've still nowhere else I need to be today, and nowhere I'd rather be than with you."
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"That's a dream of contentment, luv and one that I've had as well. I'd keep you gloriously naked, letting you leave only to attend to your responsibilities and when you returned to me, I'd strip you slowly and drag you back to bed."
"...let's use our time as best we can, cariad? I've still nowhere else I need to be today, and nowhere I'd rather be than with you."
Looking over at my girl, I grin and pull her close, whispering softly to her. "We could play another game, of your choosing this time, or perhaps some other equally-naked activity? Of course, I'd be content to spend the rest of our time buried inside your wet silk. I have consistent desires where you're concerned. luv, but I'll let you decide."
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"You've more practical dreams than I, then, to account for me needing to leave," I murmur, still stroking his hair. "Does that make them easier to fall into?" A grin flicks at the corner of my mouth. "Or is it just that you like the idea of undressing me so well? I can get my shirt and put it on for you to take it off..."
"We could play another game, of your choosing this time, or perhaps some other equally-naked activity? Of course, I'd be content to spend the rest of our time buried inside your wet silk. I have consistent desires where you're concerned. luv, but I'll let you decide."
"You always do. You're apt to spoil me, you don't mind that... Could you just hold me a while, Iago?" I glide one hand down his side, rest it on his hip and look up into his witchfire eyes, and I'm kissing him again, coaxing his mouth open slow and easy as my thumb strokes gently over the ball of his hip.
"Tell me a secret?" I whisper, pulling back enough to speak.
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